Engstrom had two main interests in life, six years ago, driving cars and playing football. But then he developed the hereditary disease, Leber’s disease, and within two months had lost most of his eyesight. He had to give up driving , but he refused to give up football.
The Guardian reports, “I was working as a train-ticket inspector when I noticed that my eyesight was getting worse and that I was struggling to do my job. It was only going in one direction and everything happened quickly. After several visits to the hospital I was told that I could have developed a rare eye disease. My dad came to the next appointment and it was then that I was told that I had the incurable disease,” he said.
Unlike other people he never lost hope. Engstrom went to his club, trained and then explained to his team-mates what had happened. Since then he had worked extremely hard for the club. He fulfilled many roles there, player, statistician, web editor and team leader.
As per Engstrom, he and his team-mates had a plan for a long time, which included him coming on late in a game if the game was already won and Ulvsby got a penalty.
He said: “As always we were struggling for players. So I put myself as a substitute and the lads promised that they would get a penalty and that I would take it. In the middle of the second half one of the players [Johan Hansen] came to me and said he’d got a penalty. ‘Get the shirt on and take it,’ he told me.
“I got really nervous. One of the guys put the ball on the penalty spot but I went up and touched the ball to know exactly where it was. I could, somewhere, see a little bit of the posts and I aimed for the right post. The feeling was that I missed and that it went straight on, but then I heard the lads cheer.
“Afterwards the guys asked how I could be so cool to wait for the goalkeeper to make his move before I shot. I didn’t have a clue I did that.”
The match finished 6-1 and the penalty had become quite popular among the media in Sweden. Engstrom, however, is more focused on getting enough players for the club’s next game.
“We have used a total of 63 players for 17 games this season. I have had to beg friends and former players to come and help us out,” he said.
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